


Celebrations

by orphan_account



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Christmas fic, M/M, Post Season 11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-06 05:16:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1102859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even soldiers need a break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Celebrations

**Author's Note:**

> and then I realized that I have a harder time writing RvB than Joelay

It was snowing.

The last time Tucker had ever seen it snow was when they were in Valhalla, which seemed like such a long time ago.

He had slept in for the first time in weeks, since Kimball had let the soldiers have a break for today and he also didn’t lie awake for hours the previous night, which was just as new to him as the snow was.

Tucker was probably going to lie down for the entire day, not having the opportunity to be lazy in a while, but then someone knocked on his door.

He groaned and got up to answer it. It was Grif, who seemed to be strangely cheery for once.

Ever since they started training the soldiers, Grif had really changed. He didn’t complain about having to work anymore, he didn’t sneer at the soldiers as much, and he even started to act like a leader.

Tucker often made fun of Grif for that. _As if you could talk._ Grif would always retort when he did.

“Kimball’s getting everyone to gather in the mess hall.” Grif said.

“Why?”

“You’ll see.”

“Fine, let me just put on my armor.” Grif shook his head. “You don’t need to, just come on.”

Grif turned and headed towards the Mess Hall without another word. Tucker hesitated, then followed. A few soldiers ran past him, giggling amongst themselves.

Tinsel and Christmas lights lined the walls. The atmosphere seemed way cheerier than usual.

The Mess Hall was even more decorated than the hallway was. There was a Christmas tree around as tall as Tucker next to the entrance, decorated with various baubles made of colorfully painted grenades and even more tinsel, which didn’t seem very safe, but no one seemed to mind. The tree was topped with Caboose’s helmet.

Practically everyone was seated and talking excitedly, and no one was wearing their armor. In fact, a lot of people were only wearing pajamas. Kimball sat at the head of the table, with Grif and Simmons to her left, and Caboose sat across Simmons. Grif waved at him and gestured for him to sit with them, pointing at the seat right to Kimball’s right.

“Merry Christmas Tucker!” someone called out to him as he passed. _Was it Christmas already?_

“What’s going on?” Tucker asked as he sat.

“It’s Christmas dumbass.” Simmons said. Tucker rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I noticed. But what’s up with the grenade decorated trees that’ll probably kill us? And all the decorations, what happened to being a low budget rebel force?” he said. Kimball smiled.

“Your concern is touching, but the soldiers needed a break. We had all of this left over from previous celebrations anyway. The tree was Caboose’s idea.” she said.

“Since when did we listen to Caboose?!” Tucker exclaimed. Kimball raised an eyebrow.

“Caboose can actually come up with really good suggestions, though it rarely happens.” she glanced at the Christmas tree. “Don’t worry, they’re duds. We use them for practice.”

“Wow. Thanks for telling me earlier.” he said, slightly annoyed. Kimball chuckled.

“Well, it’s nice to know that you actually care.”

“No, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to die because we listened to Caboose and used goddamn grenades for Christmas decorations!.” he argued. Grif snickered.

“Whatever makes you sleep at night buddy.” he said. “When’s the food coming?” Simmons sighed.

"Is food seriously all you think about?”

"Yes." Grif said. "I don't see why you're _still_ surprised by this."

“Yeah but I thought by now you’d—”

“Come on Simmons, it’s Christmas. It’s hard not to think about food.”

“The food will come soon. Right now we’re just letting everyone settle down.” Kimball interjected.

 “So if it _is_ Christmas, did you guys get me anything?” Tucker asked, smiling a bit.

“Of _course_ we did, why wouldn’t we? We went to the shop and picked up some gifts for you.” Grif said sarcastically. “It’s not like we’re in a civil war or anything.”

“Ooh! Did you get me a preeeseeent?” Caboose asked, smiling like a child. Grif sighed.

“I’m sorry Caboose, we didn’t get you a present.” Kimball said. “Maybe next time.” Caboose’s smile faltered a bit.

“That’s okay. I don’t think you could’ve gotten what I wanted anyways.” he said.

“What did you want then?”

“I dunno, a bunch of things. A puppy, maybe some Christmasy sweaters, but I also wanted to see Church or Wash or Freckles again.” he said. They all stared at the table.

“Yeah, I think that’d be hard to get.” Simmons said after a few moments of silence. Tucker clenched his fist. He looked up at Caboose.

“Actually Caboose, I think I might be able to get you something.” Caboose looked up.

“Really?” He asked excitedly. Tucker nodded.

“Yeah it just… might come in a bit late okay?” Caboose grinned.

"What is it? Is it a puppy?"

"No. I'll get you Wash and Church back. I promise." Kimball looked surprised. Grif smiled.

“In one piece?” he asked. Tucker laughed.

“Well I’ll get them back in one piece, but they may not stay in one piece. No promises there.” They laughed.

Soon afterwards the food arrived and the conversation deteriorated as they became distracted by the food. It wasn’t much, almost the same as their regular meals but with a bit of chocolate, but they stayed silent.

The entire day consisted of sitting in one of the commons areas and chatting, and also eating and napping. Not many gifts were exchanged, though some people gave homemade sentiments like songs, letters, and drawings. Tucker even decided to humor the young soldiers and answer their questions, usually about how they “brought down” Project Freelancer. It was a bit painful to recall their old adventures, but he considered it his Christmas gift to them. He rarely ever told them anything.

He told them about how they had crashed on Chorus, and how Felix had found them. He would’ve continued, but the soldiers said that he could stop.

“You look sad, and we don’t want you to be sad on Christmas.” One of them had said. Another grumbled that it was too dark for a Christmas story.

“Don’t you have any _happy_ stories?”

“Yeah, what about a Christmas story?” Tucker snorted.

“Christmas stories? Lemme think for a bit…”

“Well, before we ever went on any of the adventures, Christmas at Blue base usually meant Church pestering me to give him a piggyback ride ‘because it’s Christmas’, and actually being a bit nice besides the pestering…” Tucker sighed. “But nice Church is just as much of a dick as regular Chruch so that probably doesn’t really count as a story does it?” Some of the soldiers giggled.

“Hey Tucker, we’re heading out for a walk, want to come with us?” Simmons asked, peeking from outside the door. Tucker shrugged and stood up.

“Why not?” he decided. They rarely ever left the base at night nowadays, and it would be quiet outside for once.

As they walked, Grif, Simmons, Tucker, and Caboose, they stared at the sky. A lot of the stars were out. Tucker had immediately regretted not getting a sweater or something before leaving.

“Man, Christmas is so fucking weird.” Tucker said. “I haven’t had a normal at home Christmas in years.” Simmons nodded.

“Yeeaaah, joining the army kind of makes holidays really different.” he said. “The only gifts I’d gotten are dumb things like rocks or shit like that.” Grif snickered.

“Well, there _was_ that one Christmas where we—” Simmons went red.

“Shut up!” Grif grinned, making Simmons go even more red. “Seriously!” Grif sighed and shook his head, still smiling.

“Guys, we got a message.” a voice said, making them jump. It was Kimball. Her face looked grim.

“What is it?” Kimball gestured for them to follow, and led them to a computer.

_To the Reds and Blues,_

_We’re coming for you._

_ε_

“We might need to cut short the celebrations—” Tucker shook his head and smiled.

“It’s fine.” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”


End file.
